2010 - Out Guess Bob's Oscar Picks Contest!

2011 Oscar Picks

The Oscar telecast is Sunday, February 27th; it promises to be a very exciting race! Veteran actors, dark horse new comers as well as some very good films have all been thrown into the mix.

Once again the Patriot is running a ‘Out-Guess Bob’s Picks’ contest. The details are provided below – suffice to say there are some cool prizes being offered!

Here now – are my predictions for this year’s winners! So get out your scorecards and see if you can outguess me!

And the nominees are:

Supporting Actress: Amy Adams: ‘The Fighter’; Melissa Leo: ‘The Fighter’; Helen Bonham Carter: ‘The Kings Speech’; Hailee Steinfeld: ‘True Grit’ and Jacki Weaver: ‘Animal Kingdom’.

And the winner is: As the powerful and manipulative matriarch of the Ward family in ‘The Fighter’, Melissa Leo was a force in every scene she was in. Don’t count out Hailee Steinfeld from ‘True Grit’ though. If she wasn’t all of 14, she may just edge out Leo. However, this is Leo’s 2nd nod, so she is due.

Supporting Actor: Christian Bale: ‘The Fighter’; Geoffry Rush: ‘The King’s Speech’; Mark Ruffalo: ‘The Kids Are Alright’; ‘Jeremy Rener: ‘The Town’ and John Hawkes: ‘Winter’s Bone’.

And the winner is: As Dicky Eklund, in ‘The Fighter’, Christian Bale channels the man both physically and emotionally with power and grace. Aside from possibly Geoffry Rush, there is no one in this category that can touch him!

Actress: Natalie Portman: ‘Black Swan’; Annette Bening: ‘The Kids Are Alright’; Nicole Kidman: ‘Rabbit Hole’; Jennifer Lawrence: ‘Winter’s Bone’ and Michelle Wiliams: ‘Blue Valentine’

And the winner is: For her fantastic and utterly convincing portrayal of Nina Sayers, the prima ballerina who suffers a nervous breakdown before our eyes in ‘Black Swan’, Natalie Portman deserves the gold! Watch for Annette Bening though, an Academy favorite who has been nominated 3 times with no win.

Actor: James Franco: ‘127 Hours’; Jeff Bridges: ‘True Grit’; Colin Firth: ‘The Kings Speech’; Javier Bardem: ‘Biutiful’ and Jesse Eisenberg: ‘The Social Network’.

And the winner is: I got this one wrong last year and under estimated Jeff Bridges, this year though I don’t think he will sneak in. This year, for his outstanding performance in ‘The King’s Speech’, Colin Firth will walk away with the Oscar. Powerful, emotional and completely out there, Firth’s performance is worth its weight in gold.

Best Original Screenplay: Mike Leigh: ‘Another Year’; Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson: ‘The Fighter’; Christopher Nolan: ‘Inception’; Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg: ‘The Kids Are Alright’ and David Seidler: ‘The King’s Speech’.

And the winner is: With its twists and turns as well as totally engrossing plot, plus the fact that Nolan was snubbed for Best Director; the Oscar will go to ‘Inception’ and Nolan.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy: ‘127 Hours’; Aaron Sorkin: ‘The Social Network’; Michael Arndt: ‘Toy Story 3’; Joel and Ethan Coen: ‘True Grit’ and Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini: ‘Winter’s Bone’.

And the winner is: With rapid fire dialogue and a truly Machiavellian tale, ‘The Social Network’ will pull out a win for Aaron Sorkin. Don’t count out the Coen brothers here though; their knack for story and rich dialogue make them the dark horse.

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky: ‘Black Swan’; David O’Russell: ‘The Fighter’; Tom Hooper: ‘The King’s Speech’; David Fincher: ‘The Social Network’ and Joel & Ethan Coen: ‘True Grit’.

And the winner is: With its rapid dialogue, outstanding use of flashbacks (that never lose you in the story) and stellar cast, David Fincher is in the lead for ‘The Social Network’ as the Best Director. Don’t count out Tom Hooper though who had the early buzz with ‘The King’s Speech’; read on and see why!

Best Picture: ‘127 Hours’, ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Fighter’, ‘Inception’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’, ‘The King’s Speech’, ‘The Social Network’, ‘Toy Story 3’, ‘True Grit’, and ‘Winter’s Bone’.

And the winner is: Generally, the rule of thumb was the Best Director should always be tied to the Best Picture. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Well, since they have opened up the Best Picture race to 10 films that can no longer be the case. I am still looking for the simply marvelous ‘The King’s Speech’ to grab the gold here. Conventional wisdom states that so go the SAGs & DGAs so will the Oscar. ‘The King’s Speech’ took top honors at both. But, don’t count out ‘The Social Network’ which had a much wider reach.

Tiebreaker: Best Animated Feature: ‘How To Train Your Dragon’, ‘The Illusionist’ and ‘Toy Story 3’.

And the winner is: Pixar, much like the Chicago Bulls in their heyday, cannot stop getting the gold and will do so here with ‘Toy Story 3’!

Those are the picks for Oscar 2011! It was a fascinating year at the movies and I am already enjoying this year! So – here are the rules:

Submit your entry for The Patriot's "Out-Guess Bob's Picks" Oscar contest by 5 p.m. Thursday, February 24. The Oscars will be announced Sunday, February 27. The top three people who out-guess our New Lenox movie expert will have their names thrown into a random pick pool. The first two names drawn will receive DVD box sets of Academy Award winning films, and the third winner will receive two movie passes to Marcus, AMC or Regal movie theaters. If no one out-guesses Bob, the three entrants closest to his picks will win.

Submit your picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. The tiebreaker: Best Animated Feature Film.

Send entries to Editor Amanda Battaglia at amanda@newlenoxpatriot.com or mail them to The New Lenox Patriot, 11516 W. 183rd St., Unit SW, Condo 3, Orland Park, IL, 60467. You must include your name, address and an email/phone number.